Indonesian films regain fame

Joko E.H. Anwar, Contributor, Jakarta

Anyone who has not been living under a rock for the past two years should realize the local film industry has begun to reemerge.

While local audiences are grateful finally to be able to watch a movie in their native language that takes place in locations they are familiar with, it is the filmmakers who are really celebrating.

After a decade of regulations and non-support from film exhibitors, which helped kill the industry, local filmmakers can now be creators again.

It may seem premature to announce that the local film industry has been revived, but it is definitely timely to inform the world about the existence of Indonesian films.

The Indonesian Film Festival (IFFEST) 2002 in Melbourne -- which is scheduled to be held from Oct. 1 to Oct. 7 -- is a good opportunity for Indonesian filmmakers to tell foreign film audiences the good news.

It is ironic, however, that this festival is being held in Australia rather than at home. The last time the festival was staged was in 1992, shortly after the local film industry totally collapsed.

IFFEST 2002 is organized by the non-profit organization Sinema Entertainment. It is truly a boon for local filmmakers, who have been waiting to be recognized not only by audiences domestically but also abroad.

"The time has arrived to tell the world (of our existence)," local director Harry Suharyadi told The Jakarta Post.

Director Nia Dinata, 32, whose big screen debut Ca Bau Kan is scheduled to open the festival, articulated local filmmakers' gratefulness for the event.

"There have been many foreign movie festivals here, French, British, you name it. Now it's our turn to have our films showcased abroad," Nia said.

The festival, which this year takes the theme "Beyond Tradition: Scenes of the New Generation", is scheduled to present 10 recent feature films, 13 shorts and four documentaries.

The event will also feature a number of shorts made by Indonesian students who live in Australia. The shorts will be competing for prizes.

Some of the screenings will be attended by the filmmakers and actors, and there will also be several discussions on the Indonesian film industry.

The mission of the festival, according to the organizer, is to introduce Indonesian films to the international market. This could help local filmmakers find foreign distributors for their movies.

Because the newly revitalized Indonesian film industry is still in its infancy, a fixed system to help filmmakers market their movies has yet to be established. Currently, local filmmakers not only produce their movies, but also have to distribute the films themselves.

However, because IFFEST 2002 will also screen a number of entries that would seem to be ineligible for this type of festival, the event could fail in its mission.

The festival is scheduled to show several highly experimental short videos that seem to have much in common with typical films and videos made by local guerrilla filmmakers: outrageous ideas without competent filmmaking skills.

However, there are quite a few much more promising entries. Riri Riza's Eliana, Eliana -- which has received critical acclaim here and abroad -- should give international audiences faith in Indonesian filmmakers.

The filmmakers also hope this event will help the outside world get to know Indonesia a little better, through several of the themes explored in the movies to be screened.

"There have been bad things said about this country abroad. These movies should reflect what the situation really is in present-day Indonesia," Harry said.

The films scheduled to be shown do have a number of different themes. There is the clash between traditional and modern values in Eliana, Eliana, nationalism in Bendera (The Flag) and modern teen romance in Ada Apa dengan Cinta? (What's Up with Cinta?), to name just a few.

The documentaries to be screened, however, while showing that freedom of expression has improved since the fall of former president Soeharto, should also confirm the country's grim record.

All four documentaries scheduled for the festival explore human rights abuses in the country. One of the documentaries, titled Mass Grave: Digging up the Cruelties of Indonesian's Forgotten Barbarism, tells the horrifying story of the reburial of 26 victims of a 1965 massacre.

However, the sheer variety found in recent Indonesian movies should be taken as a sign that the local film scene is heading in a positive creative direction.